Up the Ashby

I seem to be making a slow start to the main cruising season. There have been two main reasons for this. One is that I was invited to play the bass with our local U3a live music group - that's what they call it - I call it a band and our performance was a gig ;-). The usual bassist was going to be away on the date of the gig and before I could even engage brain and think about the fact that I had not played for seven or eight years, my mouth accepted the invitation. I had four practices and learnt eight numbers so most spare moments were taken up learning the songs. I thoroughly enjoyed playing and I must say that we sounded pretty good. We also played four ukelele tunes with the uke group, too.

The second event that I was awaiting was the arrival of my second granddaughter. I was on call for minding the three year old while it was all happening. She decided to be nine days late and to put her Mum through a thirty four hour labour. She also decided that it would be fun if she broke the waters at 1am so Nanna had to drive down to London at that point, arriving at 3am!! It was a joy to look after Hollie and I was able to have lots of cuddles with the new baby, later named Alice.

The day after returning from London I was off cruising the Ashby. It is so quiet here with few boat movements. It is beautiful countryside with only Hinckley nodding towards any sort of urban living. I have found a couple of farm shops selling tasty delights (and not that expensive). I did come up the Ashby in 2012 but didn't go right to the terminus as it was the year that it rained and rained (Queen's Jubilee) and I gave up soon after Sutton Wharf. There is a newish marina at Market Bosworth and some delightful long term moorings at Shackerstone. The visitor moorings weren't too bad either. It's worth a look in the Ashby Canal Society shop at the terminus. It has a vast array of bric a brac, books and so forth. There is a fantastic bus that goes through Snarestone from where you can go to Ashby de la Zouch, Atherstone or Nuneaton. It goes through some wonderful villages and calls at Twycross Zoo. I am having a couple of days off while the weather is so wet and windy but the forecast from Wednesday onwards is looking good so, hopefully, I will fit in some nice walks before moving on to Birmingham and then Worcester.